Feminalia

Feminalia were snugly fitting knee-length pants, or breeches. Though the
name might suggest that they were worn by women, in fact they were worn
most often by men. They were called feminalia because the pants covered
the length of the thighbone, or femur.

During the Roman Republic (509–27
B.C.E.
) men had generally avoided wearing trousers or pants of any kind,
considering it a barbaric costume. They had good reason for this idea, for
the people they saw wearing clothing on their legs were the barbarians who
lived on the outskirts of the areas controlled by Rome, especially the
loosely organized Gauls who lived in the colder north, in present-day
France. During the Roman Empire (27
B.C.E.
–476
C.E.
), however, Roman soldiers ventured further and further north in pursuit
of conquest. Eventually they made their way to Britain, where many men
wore pants to protect themselves from the cold. Soon, Roman soldiers,
especially horsemen, adopted the short, close-fitting pants of the
barbarians, and they returned home with them.

Feminalia never became as popular as the main men's garments, the
toga and the tunica, or shirt, but they did become acceptable wear for
work or for travel to colder climates. Mounted soldiers, called cavalry,
usually wore leather feminalia, similar to the chaps worn by cowboys in
the western United States in the nineteenth century. Civilians wore
feminalia made from a variety of materials, including wool and cotton. The
most famous Roman to wear feminalia was the emperor Augustus Caesar (63
B.C.E.
–14
C.E.
), who wore them through the winter to protect his sometimes fragile
health.